VILLA PARK WORKER SUSPENDED

Neil H. MehlerCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Villa Park Village Manager Paul Wenbert has suspended a Building Department inspector for three days without pay for falsely stating on her job application that she had a high school diploma, village officials said Friday. Leigh Rubino was suspended from Monday through Wednesday and was told to obtain a high school diploma or the equivalent by March 15 or she could lose her job.

Rubino told reporters this month that she was about to be fired because she had found ''violations'' at the Villa Park Lawnmower shop on St. Charles Road, owned by Village Trustee Mike Iozzo.

Iozzo, a member of the Village Board`s minority bloc, denied that he had tried to get her dismissed but said he disagreed with her contentions about violations on his premises. Wenbert agreed at a Village Board meeting that Iozzo hadn`t tried to get Rubino fired, but Iozzo`s political opponents on the board have asked for an investigation of the matter.

Iozzo counterattacked last Monday by proposing an ethics ordinance and charging, in effect, that if one of the majority bloc trustees came to the board meetings without being under the influence of alcohol there would be less controversy and dissension in Villa Park government.

He didn`t name the target of his proposal. A local weekly newspaper two years ago raised the same charge about one of the male trustees, without naming him.

Iozzo and Trustee Joanne L. Gross, his ally, also said that the board members should be required to stay for the full meetings, a slap at Trustee Lawrence Kenyon. In the last 3 1/2 years Kenyon has frequently walked out of meetings without a word or occasionally said he had ''company'' at home or wanted to watch a sports event on television.

Kenyon has argued with every member of the board except Trustee Tom King, with whom he almost always sides in the voting. Kenyon also has been threatened with expulsion from board meetings by Village President Douglas Brandow for interrupting proceedings and refusing to wait to be recognized by the presiding officer before he speaks.

Several months ago members of several village advisory groups complained that Kenyon had denigrated their efforts, and they objected to his public remarks about the units on which they served.